Texas Rangers 10 Minnesota Twins 2 (August 2, 2006)
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0 commentsThe Texas Rangers needed to come out of Minnesota with a series win, and they delivered. They needed to start August strong...we’ll have to wait on the results of their series against the LAA Angels and Oakland A's. But two wins in the first two days of August is certainly a step in the right direction. And, I don’t want to jump the gun by saying that their offense is finally coming alive, but after a July in which they averaged 4.5 runs per game (courtesy of four shutouts), they have scored nine runs per game in their last four games.
True, they’ve done it against four starting pitchers that have a combined ERA of 6.08, but again - it’s a step in the right direction.
Kip Wells was very effective in his first outing as a Ranger, scattering seven hits over five innings to hold the Minnesota Twins to one run. He got into trouble repeatedly, but got himself right out of it by getting a lot of ground ball outs, including two GIDP. He also had a strikeout-throwout double play. If he keeps up the groundout-flyout ratio he had in this game (2:1), he should find success in Arlington.
Wes Littleton, Ron Mahay, Rick Bauer and Akinori Otsuka combined for four innings of one-run ball in relief of Wells, who picked up the win.
Mark Teixeira was Texas’ big bat of the day, going 2-4 with two solo homers and a walk. His homerun in the second inning got Texas out to an early 1-0 lead that was extended to 2-0 in the third inning on a Carlos Lee sac fly. Texas put the game away in the fourth inning by scoring five runs with two outs. Only two of the runs were earned.
With the two homeruns today, Teixeira grabbed the lead for team homeruns with 17. He also extended his streak to 26 consecutive games of reaching base safely.
Honorable mention for bating performances go out to Mark DeRosa, Ian Kinsler and Gerald Laird. There’s just not enough room to congrulate the Rangers on all the great performances today. Those three combined to go 7-15, with five runs and three RBI.
With the win today, Texas moves back up to .500 and remains 3.0 games back of the division leading Athletics. But, with the A's playing the Angels, the Rangers managed to gain a game on the AL West's second place team, whome they are now 1.5 games behind. The Rangers will have a chance to overtake them when they meet the Angels for four games in Anaheim over the weekend.
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Date
August 2, 2006
